Super showdown in amazing race

With help, changes, luck, McCain found way ahead

February 05, 2008|By Jill Zuckman, TRIBUNE CORRESPONDENT

NEW YORK — "Back in the dark days, when Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign was almost penniless and he had parted ways with his campaign manager and closest political adviser, there was one pressing question: When would he quit the race?" (This paragraph as published has been corrected in this text.)

"As Chairman Mao says, 'It's always darkest before it's totally black,'" he told reporters who had come to New Hampshire "to watch the embalming," as he put it.

FOR THE RECORD - This story contains corrected material, published Feb. 7, 2008.

Blending black humor and grim determination, McCain careened from front-runner to dead man walking to likely Republican nominee, a status that could be sealed Tuesday. "I had no illusions of how tough it was," McCain said over the weekend during an interview as he chewed on a cherry Twizzlers in the back seat of an SUV. "But I never thought of it in terms of, 'Well, you're basically through.'"

But it was close. As of June, his campaign had bled through all the money it had raised. Campaign events routinely cost north of $25,000. The Straight Talk Express bus tallied $9,000 a day. Somebody spent $900 on doughnuts. McCain was spending like a front-runner, an inevitable one at that.

In the Senate, he seemed decidedly on the wrong side of every major issue -- from immigration, where he was trying to broker a deal toxic to GOP voters, to the Iraq war, where he was asking for more troops when others were talking withdrawal.

He put his campaign back together this way: asking friends for help, cutting costs, adjusting his position on immigration, making the troop "surge" his cause and relying on a band of dedicated volunteers. Other ingredients included lots of talk, sheer will -- and a good deal of luck, as McCain is the first to acknowledge.

"I realized a lot of things had to break my way, some of which weren't under my control," McCain said.

4th of July in Iraq

He began his resurgence in an unexpected way -- with a visit to Iraq over the 4th of July weekend. In many ways, that trip was a turning point for McCain, who points to it as the moment that galvanized him to keep on the presidential track.

He watched as 688 young men and women re-enlisted and 130 service personnel became naturalized citizens. Two empty chairs represented soldiers who'd died before they could become U.S. citizens. Himself a former prisoner of war, McCain gave an emotional address, and about 2,000 service members waited to shake his hand.

Back in the U.S., he began enlisting his friends. "He called and said, 'What do you think?' I said, 'It's a hell of a mess,'" recalled Orson Swindle, his former cellmate in North Vietnam who has helped to organize veterans' support.

As part of controlling spending, the campaign payroll was slashed. John Weaver, McCain's longtime strategist, departed.

During his first trip to New Hampshire after the near-collapse, McCain went straight to Concord to meet privately with his top supporters in the state. "He said, 'I know how to campaign in New Hampshire, and I'm going to take my case to the people,'" said Steve Duprey, a top backer. "He just picked that campaign up and carried it on his back."

Still, some of the senator's closest advisers did not think it was possible for him to recover. "We wanted John McCain, if he fell short, to walk off the field with his chin up," said one.

The press ignored him almost completely. Donors shied away. But he kept making his pitch -- that the troop surge was working and he was best prepared to be commander in chief.

He put himself before the voters, holding town hall meeting after town hall meeting, sometimes before very small groups of voters. Not infrequently, the questions were hostile. A humble McCain would present his position -- usually on immigration, often on the war -- and then ask the questioner if they wanted to follow up. When he finished talking, he would ask, "Did I answer your question?"

"What it required was complete focus by him and effective campaigning every day, because he was the only asset we had," said Charles Black, who has emerged as McCain's chief strategist.

A key moment came at a Republican debate in New Hampshire when Erin Flanagan told the candidates about her brother, 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Cleary, who was killed in action in Iraq eight days before he was supposed to come home. Flanagan pleadingly asked the candidates what they would do to bring the parties together and "bring this conflict to a point in which we can safely bring our troops home."

McCain rose from his stool and walked forward. "This war was very badly mismanaged for a long time," he said gently. "And Americans have made great sacrifices, some of which were unnecessary because of this management of the war.